I wasn’t 100% sure when I made this claim. I made it without having done any extensive research and just on the basis of my own personal knowledge.

I’ve been listening to dubstep for the past few years and more recently I’ve been getting into more aggressive forms of dubstep and exploring the global or transnational dubstep scene as you can tell from my recent mixes and posts on Dubstep Mondays on this blog .

I’ve never come across any Qawwali Dubstep and the track Sufi Dubstars have done is the first, IMHO.

I’ve come across Qawwali Dub, there’s loads of that about, Gaudi etc etc. I’ve also come across Dubstep Ghazals which is the sort of thing Bandish Projekt incorporate into their repertoire. But I’ve never come across any Qawwali Dubstep!

Anyhow, once I’d posted that and made the claim too, a few people responded saying, the Sufi Dubstars track is not the first Qawwali Dubstep, it’s been done before and I was pointed into the direction of 2 examples.

So I thought ok..maybe I’ve got it wrong and I accepted the feedback on face value and left it at that.

But then out of curiosity, I listened to the 2 examples sent to me.

Ghandi’s example is where I have left the comment on his mixtape. So I listened and thought man, that ain’t dubstep. It’s more like dub/dub reggae and is definitely not dubstep. Yes it contains Qawwali vocals and is dubbed out but def not dubstep!

So I then listened to Lowdjo’s track by DJ Pinch. It’s called Qawwali and def has a dubstep vibe and a hint of a Harmonium sample but it ain’t Qawwali!

Qawwali’s should (if not as a MUST) contain a lead vocal.

The word Qawwali means…

a musician or singer who sings the hymns or praises of God and dictums of the prophets, saints and other holy personages in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and even Hindustani composed by reputed Sufi saints and poets.

here’s another defintion:

Qawwali is the traditional form of Islamic song found in India and Pakistan. The word qawwali is derived from the Arabic word Qaol which means “axiom” or “dictum”. A Qawwal is one who sings qawwali, or the dictums of the prophets and praises of God. The Qawwali is closely linked to the spiritual and artistic life of northern India and Pakistan.

So I’m afraid that the DJ Pinch track is just Qawwali in name and not in feel and plus it contains no vocal at all and hence cannot be Qawwali Dubstep.

DOES IT ALL MATTER..no, not really. I mean I don’t really care that much as to who is the first to do it BUT I just don’t know anybody else that has done it before.

I ain’t no expert on qawwali music or an ethnomusicologist or a musical historian and as I have said the research I have done is very limited. So if anybody does have any other examples of Qawwali Dubstep please be sure to let me know.

I AM AHSAN ALI TAJI BIOGRAPHY HISTORY OF QAWWALI ALI MOHAMMAD TAJI SUFI QAWAL .
ALI MOHAMMAD TAJI is one of world famous QAWWALI SINGERS in Sufi Mystic/folk and semi calssical songs of PAKISTAN.
ALI MOHAMMAD TAJI golden voice has swept audience into a trance with scintillating renderings of devotional ecstatic Sufi
mystical Poetry with his unique style,being the only vocalist who can sing QAWWALI / AND FOLK melodies in Urdu/ Hindi/ poorvi/ Panjabi/ and Sindhi language. ALI MOHAMMAD TAJI till now perfromed EUROPE/INDIA/UAE/ SOUTH AFRICA AND UK. His beaufiful uplifting music transcends all linguisitc boundaries.

SAQIB ALI TAJI

SAQIB ALI TAJI is a bonafide singer, has the capability of singing classical music, including Thumri, Darda, Ghazal and Kafi. He has been performing in qawwali since the last 22 years with his father ALI Taji qawwal. He is one of the best qawwal of Pakistan.